Conveyer



A. REDLER April 9, 1940.

CONVEYER Filed Aug. '7, 1936 g/q wa, (Am m ATTORNEY Patented Apr. 9,1945e a a 2,196,609

UNITED 'STATES PA TENTy JOFFlCE CONVEYER Arnold Redler, Stroud, England,assignor to Redler Conveyor Company, Quincy, Mass a corporation of-Massachusetts 1 Application August '7, 1936, Serial No. 94,785, InGreat Britain August 16, 1935 3Claims. (Cl.198-'-168) v :Thisinventionrelates to endless conveyersand the chain 4. 'I'hechain 4 runs beneath aterminal more particularly to conveyers of the open flight sprocket 6-situated within the trough, the end i i type. 'It seeks to provide aconstruction of conwall I of which may be conveniently curved as atrveyer which may enable economiesto be effectedlA'mo'reforless1concentrically with the sprocket 5 in first cost, andalso to provide for some degree i6,';'butleavin'g' aclearance forthepassage of the 5 of simplification, particularly inregard to power chain4 andperhaps some material. The chain transmission means, means formaintaining corruns around j the terminal sprocket B, which is rect tension of; a conveyingelement, and in other power. driven by any suitableexternal source respects. The invention also seeks to provide aconnected to its shaft 6A, andreturns over the 10 cheap form of chainwhich will fulfill certain top of the sprocket more or less in the pathshown 1 0 requirements and. in particular may enable an in Fig. 1, andwitha definiteslack loop at 4B en'masse conveyer element to be run overa relawhich" is supported by the upper surface .of a

tively small sprocket whereby certain problems battle 8 which comprisesa sort of false floor exin relation to speed reduction in transmissiontending" acrossthe trough from side to side and t 1' systems may be met.l runsihorizontally throughout the greater part of According to onefeature of this invention, the the length er; the trough, but towardsthe end '1 drivingsprocket in an open flight conveyer of the inclinesdowhwardly until its extremity near the endless chain type is madesubstantially less in sprocket. 6, where it is again curved, upwardlypitchdiameter than the spacing between the .two more or less to followthe sag of the chain at 4B.

runs of the chain, and a type of chain is prefer- 'In'the inclinedpartfarr opening 8A is formed, r2 ably adopted which will runsatisfactorily over. a through whichmaterial may'pass, and the-factsmall sprocket, and also means are, preferably that the baffle 8inclinesdown to a fairly close provided in the form of what may be termed aproximity to the'floor' l means that if more than shield, which will notonly obviate or diminish the a certain amount of material is beingconveyed risk of the load immersing or jamming .the in the direction'ofthearrows 4A and towards the 5 sprocket as the chain passes aroundit,but also j sprocket 6,th'e material will build up in a heap, enablethe chain to be runwith varying degrees as illustrated at 9, and willconsequently prevent "of slack in its idle or return travel, so thattenthe material on top of the baffle srrom falling sioners or otheradjusting means maybe disthrough the opening'8A,sothat material will bepensed with. The type of chain adopted may .conveyed up the slope of thebafiie 8 as indicated= also, whilst affording full, articulation whichis at Ill; This'material on top of the baflle 8 may desirable for thepassage over the small sprocket, again fall down through the openingtherein at minimize the risk of jamming even though its 813, which alsomay be an ordinary loading open- ,links be packed with theconveyedmaterial; ingjor the conveyer, so that it rejoins the mass r Theinvention is illustrated in the accompany- 5' and is again available fordelivery through the 5 ,ing drawing diagrammatically: Fig. l shows 1achute 3. Inthis way jamming and overloading is side elevation of one endof a convey er; j"Fig. 2 is prevented; i forxample, there is some ternanenlarged side view of a terminal sprocket and porary obstruction to theoutlet of 3, then a part chain passing therethrough; Fig; 3 is a planview of the load is carried on towards the terminal 6,

v 40 of the device of Fig. 2;Figj4 is a view, similar to and althoughperhaps mere small and incidental 6 Fig. 2,-of an alternative form ofchain and quantities of load simply get carried aroundthe sprocket; andFigf5fis a plan corresponding to sprocket and fallback again through 3A,there Fig. 4. will come a time when this is sufficiently built up 7 InFig. 1 the open flight conveyer comprises a for the load at ID to form,and consequently for '45 trough with a floor I and vertical parallelwalls return to 5 to be effected. This arrangement not 2, the floorhaving an outlet 3. A chain, diagramonly automatically effects'somedegree of evenmatically indicated at 4, runs in the directionof ing outof delivery, but it provides a capacity the arrows 4A along the floor Iof the trough. for dealing with temporary overloads or chokingThematerial 5 is carried along within the trough of outlet. Theparticular form of" sprocket and by the oo-acting links of the chain inthe fashion chain which will be described in greater detail 50 or" openflight conveyers, and the trough is, in hereafter, facilitates this inthat it enables a accordance with this type of conveyer, of consmallsprocket to beused which will consequently siderable height in relationto the depth of the deal with loads as above described without chainitself. This can be perceived from Fig. l, jamming. Again, the smallsprocket is. well. in which the material 5 is seen to be heaped onadapted to operate with a chain with a high 55 and they areinterconnected at intervals .by flights in the form of metal strips 14presenting fiat surfaces in the direction of motion and liaving theirends bent at right angles to form plates as at l5 which are attached tothe chains [2 and i l 3 by being carried on an. adjacent pair of pivots,as can be seen more clearly in Fig. 3. The flights l4 span the troughalmost completely, and the chains i2 and [3 simply roll around thecylindrical part of the sprocket 6, Whilst the bosses H are so spacedperipherally as .to engage adjacent flights 54in sequence, thus drivingthe conveyer element as required.

A variation is shown in Figs. 4 and 5, in which a single roller chain isemployed; there is again a sprocket 6 of plain cylindrical form, ,butinthis case half-way between its ends it has radially projecting sprocketteeth l6 which may conveniently be an actual wheel like a bicyclesprocket, embodied in the sprocket 6. The teeth I6 are engaged by asingle roller chain H which has laterally projecting flights l8 formedof strip metal orthe like, with ends bent at [8A for attachment to thechain I1, as can be seen in Fig. 5. In this case, of course, the drivefrom the sprocket to the chain is through the rollers of the chain, andnot through the flights, and the flights are supported during theirpassage around the terminal by the cylindrical part of the sprocket.

6. In each case it will be seen that the, chain is of a high degree ofarticulation and can therefore pass readily around a relatively smallsprocket, and yet the spacing of adjacent flights is consistent with enmasse conveying. It follows that a sprocket may be used which is ofappreciably less depth than the conveyer trough, or theconveyed load.The terminal at the other end of the conveyer, which is not shown in thedrawing, may simply be a plain cylindrical roller without anychain-engaging. means. Owing to the relative smallness of the drivingsprocket of the conveyer, it may be found possible to drive fromordinary sources of power without reduction gearing; for example, thespindle 6A may merely have a pulley perhaps considerably larger than thesprocket itself, and thus economy in cost and weight may be achieved.

- Having now particularly described and ascertainedthe nature of my saidinvention, and in What manner the same is to be performed, I declarethat what I claim is:

i. In a conveyer of the character described,

in combination, a casing provided with a discharge outlet, an endlessopen flight conveyer member traversable through the casing, a drivingsprocket around which the conveyer member passes to constitute the lowerrun of the conveyer the working run, said discharge outlet beingdisposed at a substantial distance in advance of the driving sprocket, asupporting plate having one end disposed adjacent the sprocket and ontowhich material passing over the sprocket delivered, said plateconstituting a support for the upper run of the conveyer member,saidplate being provided with an opening" through which material beingconveyed by the lower run of the conveyer may pass prior to reaching thedriving sprocket'when the outlet from the conveyer casing becomes chokedto thereby be conveyed by'the upper run of the conveyer member over saidsupporting plate.

2. In a conveyer of the character described, in combination, a conveyercasing provided with a discharge outlet, an endless open flight conveyermember traversable through the casing, a driving sprocket over whichsaid conveyer member is arranged to pass to constitute the lower run ofthe conveyer member the workingrun, theportion of the upper run of theconveyer member adjacent the .driving sprocket being disposed a short,distance above the lower working run an outlet in the bottom thereof, aconveyer member of skeleton type arranged to be drawn through thecasing, a terminal sprocket over which the conveyer member passes, saidoutlet being disposed at a substantial distance in advance of thedriving sprocket, the lower run of the'conveyer member constituting theworking run and a supporting plate for the upper run of the conveyerhaving an opening disposed adjacent the terminal sprocket and a secondopening at a distance therefrom whereby to permit material piling up inadvance of the terminal sprocket when the outlet of the conveyer casingis closed to by-pass onto said plate to be conveyed by the upper run ofthe conveyer member ARNOLD REDLER.

